Of things that change

There have been historical changes to the political landscape following the results of Election Day on May 2.

Some very good things came out of this election; some things were predictable; and others were utterly disappointing.

Let’s start by admitting if anyone told us two weeks ago the NDP under Jack Layton would form the official Opposition, we would have laughed ourselves silly.

However, he is the first NDP leader to form the Opposition and he will try to hold Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s feet to the coals.

We very much like what Mr. Layton said following the results on Election Night: he was going to provide propositions more than the status quo opposition.

It will be very interesting to see if Mr. Harper will present his bull in the China shop approach to Mr. Layton’s questions, or if he goes with the Mr. Nice Guy look he tried to portray during the campaign.

Elizabeth May also made history by being the first Green Party candidate to win a seat in the House of Common.

Finally, the Greens have a seat on the national stage and, undoubtedly, she will keep the environment front and centre during the next four years.

We believe the Green Party will make some substantial gains in both federal and provincial elections thanks to her victory.

It was predictable that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was going to go down hard, as he had been hammered by Conservative attack ads for the past two years and he did nothing to improve his image during the election campaign.

And even though he promised he would stick with the party regardless of the election outcome, he ran with his tail between his legs and the party in shambles the following morning.

We’re not going to lose any sleep over the demise of Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.

Too long has he lived high on the hog at the expense of the Canadian taxpayers while he tried to pull the country apart.

***

British Columbia’s NDP members rolled the dice when they selected Adrian Dix as their leader on Sunday.

No disrespect intended. Mr. Dix is a very intelligent man who believes deeply in all things NDP.

However, he was born two or three decades too late. His passion and fire and brimstone rhetoric would have taken him to great heights back then.

But now, he’s considered to be a throw back to the left-of-left days.

And that is going to cause him no end of trouble in the next provincial election.

As soon as Carole James was chased away from the pride, most political pundits were betting Mike Farnworth would lead the New Democrats out of the desert and into the Promised Land.

The media giants, who are in the know, believed that because Mr. Farnworth was most like Ms. James in that he was the candidate who most represented the centre of the party.

He would be least scary and, therefore, the most attractive to the undecided and those who lost their passion for participating at the polling booths.

On the other hand, Mr. Dix will most likely try to recover and revive the fervor of the blue collar and professional unionized employees.

However, two other things figured in the loss of political momentum – the first being the bomb that was called the NDP leadership race.

What race you say? Exactly!

There was a bunch of guys holding hands singing Kumbaya at different urban centres throughout the province. It was laughable and nobody but diehard New Democrats cared.

Any fire that was created was doused by a B.C. Liberal media campaign that blanketed the province with promises of new policies, programs and funding.

The NDP are caught in a dead calm right now and they better hope for the winds of change to blow up.